Kilohertz

I might also, I wanted to play with ONSTEP for possible upgrades on my Meade 853 so I ordered the Terrans EQ3 kit with motors and pulleys etc. Since all of the kits would require mods to work on the Meade, I thought I might as well order the one for the EQ3 so I have options. I'll keep this thread updated once the PTFE arrives. cheers

I've had my new to me NEQ3-Pro mount for over 2 months and have yet to use it. Between just learning all this astrophotography stuff, software, new scopes etc. and of course a month of complete cloud cover, there just hasn't been any opportunity to capture astro images, so......I decided to pull apart my mount to install the needle thrust bearings as described in several locations on the web. I ordered all the bearings and teflon grease and completely dismantled my mount and started reassembling it, immediately found it impossible to get the worm drive gear aligned properly as the mounting screw slots weren't long enough to place the 2mm washers under the worm drive mount, plus I had to drill a little hole in the side of the RA housing to get at the 3 little grub screws holding the aluminum plate on the 1" shaft as the original hole was too far below the plate to get into the holes of the allen screws. All this got me frustrated and I pulled everything out and am now ready to return all the bearings, but not before I try something else. One thing I noticed in the video by Petter is that he placed thrust bearings where they are not needed as the clutches in both axis are normally locked and the surfaces are just fine with just the red fiber washer, we really only need bearings on the outside ends of the DEC and RA shafts, and thru some extensive research I found a bearing to replace the AKX2542 (which needs some grinding to clear the 1" shaft) and the new part is a TC1625, dirt cheap on Amazon and elsewhere and has a 1" bore and 1 9/16" outside which fits under the RA worm gear perfectly, you only need one. I also found on Aliexpress very thin stainless shims, again just the right size and only .1mm thick as apposed to the .75-1mm thick plates which come with the bearings. They will be here in a few weeks. This will bring the worm gear closer to its original position and should make alignment possible again. I was a little uneasy about his running the bearings without the steel shims in place, running hardened steel rollers on soft aluminum may cause some indentations or galling if you crank down the end nuts too much. Now, as I am also into a lot of other hobbies, auto restoration, metal fab, stereo building and modding etc. I have a fair bit of experience in slipitivity, my own word for the lack of friction between 2 surfaces, the opposite of course being gription. I know PTFE (Teflon) has very low coefficient of friction so I have ordered a sheet of .1mm thick pure PTFE to cut out and replace the existing red fiber washers currently in place. I spent a day trying to find precut PTFE shims with no luck, the sheet was cheap $15 for 300mmx1M, it should be here tomorrow from Amazon. I am going to try replacing just the red fiber washers with PTFE and leave out the thrust bearings altogether, for now. As there is no end in site for cloudy nights, and I have some time off work, I thought I would try it as another experiment that I thought might be a great solution. I will update as I make progress, and of course welcome all comments and corrections if I have made any incorrect assumptions. Cheers Paul

Hard to get good clear pics but here is mine, top and bottom side. I think it would be best to snip off your end and start fresh, have you crimped these types before? If you don't have a crimper you can manually push each pin out with a jewelers screwdriver, pull out the wires, cut the damaged ends off then cut off the blue wire shorter, then push them back in in the correct order then push each pin down to break thru the insulation, takes a lot longer than if you had a crimper. If you want to pop over I can do it for you in a minute. 😁 Cheers

Interesting, I just opened the box for my wifi dongle and inside is another cable, RJ45-RJ12, too funny. So they made 2 different versions of mount controllers (or more counting USB etc. ) I had a good look at the RJ12 end and mine is the same, they don't use the blue wire, it's cut short of the pin crimp area so only 5 wires are used, however it looks like your orange wire is displaced or maybe broken, sending a picture of mine, standby. Cheers

It's a straight thru network cable, CAT5 or similar. i.e. Pin 1 goes to Pin 1, Pin 2 to Pin 2 etc. Pic to follow.

It should just be a short RJ-45 to RJ-45 jumper, both 8 pin connectors. I'll dig mine out and send you a picture. Cheers

I am going to start researching the replacement of the tangent arm drive with a complete 360* setup. I have an old Bushnell EQ mount that may be a donor. I have a lathe so if needed I can bore the center hole to fit the Meade shaft. I'll have some time this winter and hope to get this working, I'll look around to see if I can find others who have updated a tangent arm to 360*. Cheers

Crap, just found out it is a tangent arm...a little more research is needed. thx

Orly, Very cool, I love it. Yes very familiar with Arduino and ESP8266 boards, I have a couple of ESP32 boards that just arrived as well as several leftover motor drivers from previous telecine project. I just found in my shop, 4 brand new German made Berger Lahr 5 phase steppers, NEMA 17 size I think, may be 27, RDM 554/50, 40 volts .2A .72* full step or .36* half step, you can hardly feel the cogging when you spin the shaft. They need some funky drivers though, I still need to figure that out. I'm just getting going with various aspects of AP, things are arriving daily, I'll hopefully be able to start capturing short exposures this weekend on my tripod. Lots of fun, thanks for your guidance. Cheers

Orly, thanks. I have a couple of your pages open already, working my way thru the 600E goto right now. I started reading the onstep pages, there's a lot to digest but it looks very good. Being an electronics tech, it's right up my ally. Thanks!

This would also be a completely acceptable solution as I will already have a laptop for image capture, I'll do some more research. Thanks

I am about to pickup a classic old Meade 856 Newt which hasn't been used in years. I'm not sure if the existing motors work or not, it comes with the #47 controller. I would like to modernize this with a goto controller, I have a Sky-Watcher Synscan NEQ-3 on the way as well and would like to use the hand held control from it. I'm an electronics nut and think I should be able to make this work. I'm wondering if anyone here has one of the old Meade EQ mounts, or similar and has modified it? Also, anyone have the manual for the Meade 856/853 or the 826 and 47 controller? It would help me to know how the original system worked. Look forward hearing from you. Cheers

Tonight really nice dark clear sky DSM of 21.06, is that a reasonable number to work with? Thx

Thanks again for the warm welcome. I decided to head out and just try snapping a few pics with my Lumix G7 on a tripod, stock 15-42mm lens. I just pointed the camera straight up at the Milky Way. This was 30s @ ISO 6400. I'm happy with my first attempt. I need to figure out a better focusing scheme. cheers

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, much appreciated. Yes I'm jumping in with both feet. I live on 20 acres out in the country, a secluded valley which I think is about Bortle 2-3. I'm starting to retire, should be fully retired in 20 years and thought while I'm here, lets get some good astro time. I've already been here 16 years. Well, I won't be stargazing this weekend, I'll be looking at the t-scope this weekend, I need to go back and reword my first post, or maybe "I'll by a comma for $500" Vanna. Still looking for a good used refractor locally, and reading several hours per day, so much to learn. Cheers

Hi all, After many years I am getting back into astronomy except this time, no film cameras, and 40 years of electronics experience to back me up and help with the process. I have my old Meade 4550 EQ mount and scope, I need to completely dismantle the scope for cleaning, it's been in the basement for years and the cap came off and has spider residue to cleanup. I also want to dismantle and clean and use modern lube in the EQ mount. I also want to motorize the RA axis as a minimum, maybe even make it a GOTO type eventually depending on what I can find for motors. I see the 531 was the one to use but are hard to find these days. I also saw the DH-4 as an option but again, rare. I have the ability to use an Arduino to control it although I would rather use a prebuilt GOTO system and spend the time observing, not building. I'm looking for suggestions for motors or GOTO systems that would work on this mount, any experience you may have working with the Meade EQ mounts etc.. I am planning on using this as is with the 4.5" newt scope, as well as a test bed for my machine vision camera and image processing flow. Look forward to any ideas you have. Cheers

Hello everyone. I have decided to get involved in astronomy again, it's been 40 years since I was serious about it. I built my own 8" Newtonian back in the 70's, learned a lot about optics. I had my own darkroom so I could process film that same night if I wanted to. Things sure have changed. I'm planning to use all of my learned experiences and electronics background to use/modify/motorize my old equatorial mount (Meade 4550) and use a machine vision camera to capture images with this simple 4.5" newt. I have a lot to learn about astrophotography and how to incorporate all my ideas into a workable setup. I'm also planning on getting started right away with a prebuilt system, I have an NEQ-3 on the way, should be here in a few weeks, and am looking at an Explore Scientific ED80 with a few accessories to go on it, I'll be going to look at it this coming weekend. I am also contemplating other scopes as well, so much has changed in 40 years. Looking forward to participating in discussions here and sharing ideas. Cheers from Vernon, BC